


we're not meant to be alone.

by apfelgranate



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Comfort/Angst, Found Family, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25228933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apfelgranate/pseuds/apfelgranate
Summary: Nile goes to see her family.
Relationships: Andy & Nile & Joe & Nicky
Comments: 26
Kudos: 395





	we're not meant to be alone.

**Author's Note:**

> so who else is drowning in the tender found family-ness of this movie

“This is dangerous.”

Andy touches Nile’s shoulder, then sits down next to her.

“I know. I  _ know _ . I just…”

Nile sucks in a shuddering breath.

“I don’t want to forget them. What they look like, what they—what they mean to me.” On the other side of the plaza, her mother and brother sit on a park bench, talking. They’re too far away to clearly make out their expressions, but the shape of their bodies, angled toward one another in conversation, legs pressed together, is so familiar it burns in Nile’s eyes. The way her mother still wears her hair, the sound of her brother’s laughter…

_ I can’t remember my mother’s face, nor the faces of my sisters. _

Nile pinches the bridge of her nose.

“I don’t want to pretend the person who I was is gone. I know I’ll have to, but not yet, not yet, I  _ can’t _ —” Her voice breaks, and she turns her face into her shoulder to hide the tears. “ _ Fuck _ .”

Andy’s arm comes around her back, tugging her sideways until she’s tilted against Andy’s hard, warm body.

The old immortal doesn’t say anything, and Nile isn’t sure whether to be grateful for it. She’s seen the jagged edges that long long life has left in Andy, far less than what Nicky and Joe and Booker must have seen, but the phantom pain comes easy enough regardless. What can you say, when you know the size of the grief that this fate will make you carry?

For long moments, they sit like that, until the lump in Nile’s throat fades to a dull ache.

“It never gets easier, does it?” Nile’s hates the question as soon as the words leave her mouth, but it’s too late. Let Andy give her something to cling to, even if it’s despair.

“You have us,” Andy says quietly instead of answering. She shifts her head and gently rests her cheek against Nile’s temple. “We have each other.”

“You’re really out here making ill-advised new immortal visits without us? I am  _ offended _ ,” Joe says from behind them, sounding anything but.

“She didn’t tell  _ anyone _ , you’re not that special,” Andy shoots back. Nile laughs despite herself, despite the ache that is spreading into her chest and belly, despite her half-dried tears.

“Is that them, over there?” Joe makes a vague motion with his head, and Nile nods. Joe sighs. He plops himself down next to Andy while Nicky sits down on Nile’s free side. Both of them worm their arms behind Nile’s and Andy’s backs, until Nile can feel all three of them, warm and heavy and  _ alive _ . Nicky’s other hand finds hers where it’s resting on her thigh and he threads their fingers together.

“It’s hard,” Joe says, rubbing his thumb back and forth below Nile’s shoulder blade. Out of the corner of her eye, Nile can see him drop a kiss on Andy’s shoulder, careful to avoid the still-healing stab wound.

“We’re not meant to be alone,” Andy says, very quietly.

“And we aren’t,” Nicky says. He squeezes Nile’s hand; Nile squeezes back. The lump in her throat is back, but this time it doesn’t choke her.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] we're not meant to be alone.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26918518) by [Shmaylor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shmaylor/pseuds/Shmaylor)




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